Workload-Aware and CPU Frequency Scaling for Optimal Energy Consumption in VM Allocation

In the problem of VMs consolidation for cloud energy saving, different workloads will ask for different resources. Thus, considering workload characteristic, the VM placement solution will be more reasonable. In the real world, different workload works in a varied CPU utilization during its work time according to its task characteristics. That means energy consumption related to both the CPU utilization and CPU frequency. Therefore, only using the model of CPU frequency to evaluate energy consumption is insufficient. This paper theoretically verified that there will be a CPU frequency best suit for a certain CPU utilization in order to obtain the minimum energy consumption. According to this deduction, we put forward a heuristic CPU frequency scaling algorithm VP-FS (virtual machine placement with frequency scaling). In order to carry the experiments, we realized three typical greedy algorithms for VMs placement and simulate three groups of VM tasks. Our efforts show that different workloads will affect VMs allocation results. Each group of workload has its most suitable algorithm when considering the minimum used physical machines. And because of the CPU frequency scaling, VP-FS has the best results on the total energy consumption compared with the other three algorithms under any of the three groups of workloads

The effect of intermittent versus continuous enteral feeding for critically ill patients: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

ObjectivesThe appropriate strategy for enteral feeding in critically ill patients still remains controversial. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to compare the effect of intermittent versus continuous enteral feeding method for critically ill patients.MethodsElectronic databases including PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane Library were searched up to April 10th, 2023 for randomized controlled trials evaluating the effect of intermittent versus continuous enteral feeding for critically ill patients. The primary outcomes were feeding intolerances, including diarrhea, vomiting, distension, constipation, gastric retention, and aspiration pneumonia. The secondary outcomes were mortality in intensive care unit (ICU), length of stay in ICU, and achievement of nutritional goal.ResultsThirteen studies with a total of 884 patients were analyzed in this meta-analysis. Overall, the use of intermittent enteral feeding was associated with higher incidence of diarrhea (OR 1.66, 95%CI 1.13 to 2.43, I2 = 16%) and distension (OR 2.29, 95%CI 1.16 to 4.51, I2 = 0%), lower incidence of constipation (OR 0.58, 95%CI 0.37 to 0.90, I2 = 0%), and longer length of ICU stay (MD 1.09, 95%CI 0.53 to 1.64, I2 = 0%). Moreover, no significant difference was identified for other outcome measures.ConclusionIn critically ill patients, the implementation of intermittent enteral feeding was associated with higher incidence of diarrhea and distension, longer length of ICU stay, but lower occurrence of constipation. Nevertheless, the absence of sufficient high-quality randomized controlled clinical trials precludes any definitive conclusions regarding the optimal approach to enteral feeding in this population. There is an imperative need for more studies to further assess the efficacy of the two enteral feeding strategies

Quantification of patient-specific coronary material properties and their correlations with plaque morphological characteristics: An in vivo IVUS study

BACKGROUND: A method using in vivo Cine IVUS and VH-IVUS data has been proposed to quantify material properties of coronary plaques. However, correlations between plaque morphological characteristics and mechanical properties have not been studied in vivo. METHOD: In vivo Cine IVUS and VH-IVUS data were acquired at 32 plaque cross-sections from 19 patients. Six morphological factors were extracted for each plaque. These samples were categorized into healthy vessel, fibrous plaque, lipid-rich plaque and calcified plaque for comparisons. Three-dimensional thin-slice models were constructed using VH-IVUS data to quantify in vivo plaque material properties following a finite element updating approach by matching Cine IVUS data. Effective Young\u27s moduli were calculated to represent plaque stiffness for easy comparison. Spearman\u27s rank correlation analysis was performed to identify correlations between plaque stiffness and morphological factor. Kruskal-Wallis test with Bonferroni correction was used to determine whether significant differences in plaque stiffness exist among four plaque groups. RESULT: Our results show that lumen circumference change has a significantly negative correlation with plaque stiffness (r = -0.7807, p = 0.0001). Plaque burden and calcification percent also had significant positive correlations with plaque stiffness (r = 0.5105, p \u3c 0.0272 and r = 0.5312, p \u3c 0.0193) respectively. Among the four categorized groups, calcified plaques had highest stiffness while healthy segments had the lowest. CONCLUSION: There is a close link between plaque morphological characteristics and mechanical properties in vivo. Plaque stiffness tends to be higher as coronary atherosclerosis advances, indicating the potential to assess plaque mechanical properties in vivo based on plaque compositions

ERECTA Regulates Cell Elongation by Activating Auxin Biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana

The ERECTA family genes, ERECTA (ER), ERECTA-LIKE1 (ERL1), and ERECTA-LIKE2 (ERL2), encode leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinases in Arabidopsis thaliana. Knocking out these three genes can cause severe phenotypes, which indicates that they play significant roles in plant growth and development. However, the molecular mechanism within remains unclear. Here we show that the short hypocotyl phenotypes of er erl1 erl2 mutants are mainly due to the defects of cell elongation rather than the cell division. In contrast, in the ERECTA overexpression transgenic plants, the hypocotyl length is increased with elongated cells. Moreover, we show that the er erl1 erl2 triple mutant contains a low level of auxin, and the expression levels of the key auxin biosynthesis genes are significantly reduced. Consistent with this observation, increasing exogenous or endogenous auxin levels could partially rescue the cell elongation defects of the er erl1 erl2 triple mutant. Therefore, our results provide a molecular basis for auxin mediated ERECTA control of the hypocotyl length in Arabidopsis thaliana

Capillary Coated with Graphene and Graphene Oxide Sheets as Stationary Phase for Capillary Electrochromatography and Capillary Liquid Chromatography

Graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were immobilized onto the capillary wall using 3-aminopropyldiethoxymethyl silane as coupling agent. Graphene coated column (G@column) was fabricated by hydrazine reduction of GO modified column. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images provided visible evidence of the GO grafted on the capillary wall. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) indicated the high coverage of the GO on the capillary wall. The G@column exhibited a pH-dependent electroosmotic flow (EOF) from anode to cathode in the pH range of 3–9 while the graphene oxide coated column (GO@column) showed a constant EOF. Both GO@column and G@column were evaluated for open-tubular capillary electrochromatography (OT-CEC). The GO@column was also evaluated for open-tubular capillary liquid chromatography (OT-CLC). Good separation of the tested neutral analytes on the GO@column was achieved on the basis of a typical reversed-phase behavior. On the contrary, G@column showed poor separation performance because of the strong π–π stacking and hydrophobic interactions between graphene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. The high coverage of GO improved the column phase ratio which makes the GO@column promising for OT-CLC separation. Five of the major known proteins including three glycoisoforms of ovalbumin in chicken egg white were identified in a single run on the GO@column with phosphate buffer (5 mM, pH 7.0) and an applied voltage of 20 kV. The run-to-run, day-to-day, and column-to-column reproducibilities are evaluated by calculating the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the EOF in OT-CEC and retention time of naphthalene in OT-CLC, respectively. These RSD values were found to be less than 3%

Satellite true digital orthophoto map generation without elevation data: a New NeRF-based method

Existing satellite true digital orthophoto map (TDOM) generation methods are designed for ground elevation data. Obtaining large-scale and high-precision ground 3D data is prohibitively costly, while low-precision elevation data introduces issues such as relief displacement, boundary distortion, and artefacts. Furthermore, producing TDOMs from satellite images captured under various lighting conditions can cause colour inconsistency problems. These issues impose limitations on the application and development of satellite TDOMs. In this paper, we propose a novel image-to-image approach that directly generates high-quality TDOMs from multi-view satellite images without the need for elevation data as input. Specifically, the 3D scene is efficiently represented by the volume density and colour, which are modelled utilizing a neural network. During each iteration, this 3D representation undergoes optimization by the multi-view satellite signals, employing a volume rendering formula. Finally, TDOM is produced utilizing our true ortho-volume rendering technique. Experimental results demonstrate that our TDOM achieves superior visual quality and geometry accuracy without the need for 3D elevation data.</p

Lignans from the Twigs of Litsea cubeba and Their Bioactivities

Litsea cubeba, an important medicinal plant, is widely used as a traditional Chinese medicine and spice. Using cytotoxicity-guided fractionation, nine new lignans 1&ndash;9 and ten known analogues 10&ndash;19 were obtained from the EtOH extract of the twigs of L. cubeba. Their structures were assigned by extensive 1D- and 2D-NMR experiments, and the absolute configurations were resolved by specific rotation and a combination of experimental and theoretically calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra. In the cytotoxicity assay, 7&prime;,9-epoxylignans with feruloyl or cinnamoyl groups (compounds 7&ndash;9, 13 and 14) were selectively cytotoxic against NCI-H1650 cell line, while the dibenzylbutyrolactone lignans 17&ndash;19 exerted cytotoxicities against HCT-116 and A2780 cell lines. The results highlighted the structure-activity relationship importance of a feruloyl or a cinnamoyl moiety at C-9&prime; or/and C-7 ketone in 7&prime;,9-epoxylignans. Furthermore, compound 11 was moderate active toward protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) with an IC50 value of 13.5 &mu;M, and compounds 4&ndash;6, 11 and 12 displayed inhibitory activity against LPS-induced NO production in RAW264.7 macrophages, with IC50 values of 46.8, 50.1, 58.6, 47.5, and 66.5 &mu;M, respectively

Nonlinear Slippage of Tensile Armor Layers of Unbonded Flexible Riser Subjected to Irregular Loads

The unbonded flexible riser has been increasingly applied in the ocean engineering industry to transport oil and gas resources from the seabed to offshore platforms. The slippage of helical layers, especially the tensile armor layers of unbonded flexible risers, contribute to the nonlinear hysteresis phenomenon, which is a research hotspot and difficulty. In this paper, on the basis of a typical eight-layer unbonded flexible riser model, the nonlinear slippage of a tensile armor layer and the corresponding nonlinear behavior of an unbonded flexible riser subjected to irregular external loads are studied by numerical modeling with detailed cross-sectional properties of the helical layers, and are verified through a theoretical method considering the coupled effect of the external loads on the unbonded flexible riser. Firstly, the balance equation of each layer considering the effect of external loads is established based on functional principles, and the overall theoretical model of the unbonded flexible riser is set up in consideration of the contact between adjacent layers. Secondly, the numerical modeling of each separate layer within the unbonded flexible riser, including the actual geometry of the carcass and pressure armor layer, is established, and solid elements are applied to all the interlayers, thus simulating the nonlinear contact and friction between and within interlayers. Finally, after verification through test data, the behavior of the unbonded flexible riser under the cyclic axial force, torsion, bending moment, and irregular external and internal pressure is studied. The results show that the tensile armor layer can slip under irregular loads. Additionally, some suggestions related to the analysis of unbonded flexible risers under irregular loads are drawn in the end

Preparation of particle-fixed silica monoliths used in capillary electrochromatography

Fused-silica capillaries were packed with porous 1 pin bare silica microspheres and immobilized by potassium silicate-formamide in order to obtain columns with silica-based monolithic packing. After curing, the particle-fixed monolithic columns were octadecylated in situ with dimethyloctadecylchlorosilane. The columns were mechanically strong and permeable. No noticeable loss in efficiency was found after using a column continuously for 1 month. The performances of the particle-fixed silica monolithic columns were evaluated for CEC under RP conditions. High separation efficiency (about 125200 plates/m) was obtained by using these new types of columns

The Activation of Reticulophagy by ER Stress through the ATF4-MAP1LC3A-CCPG1 Pathway in Ovarian Granulosa Cells Is Linked to Apoptosis and Necroptosis

Female infertility is caused by premature ovarian failure (POF), which is triggered by the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-mediated apoptosis of granulosa cells. The ER unfolded protein response (UPRer) is initiated to promote cell survival by alleviating excessive ER stress, but cellular apoptosis is induced by persistent or strong ER stress. Recent studies have reported that reticulophagy is initiated by ER stress. Whether reticulophagy is activated in the ER stress-mediated apoptosis of granulosa cells and which pathway is initiated to activate reticulophagy during the apoptosis of granulosa cells are unknown. Therefore, the role of reticulophagy in granulosa cell death and the relationship between ER stress and reticulophagy were investigated in this work. Our results suggest that the ER stress inducer tunicamycin causes POF in mice, which is attributed to the apoptosis of granulosa cells and is accompanied by the activation of UPRer and reticulophagy. Furthermore, granulosa cells were treated with tunicamycin, and granulosa cell apoptosis was triggered and increased the expression of UPRer and reticulophagy molecules. The expression of ATF4 was then downregulated by RNAi, which decreased the levels of autophagy and the reticulophagy receptor CCGP1. Furthermore, ATF4 targets MAP1LC3A, as revealed by the ChIP sequencing results, and co-IP results demonstrated that MAP1LC3A interacts with CCPG1. Therefore, reticulophagy was activated by ER stress through the ATF4-MAP1LC3A-CCPG1 pathway to mitigate ER stress. Additionally, the role of reticulophagy in granulosa cells was investigated by the knockdown of CCPG1 with RNAi. Interestingly, only a small number of granulosa cells died by apoptosis, whereas the death of most granulosa cells occurred by necroptosis triggered by STAT1 and STAT3 to impair ER proteostasis and the ER protein quality control system UPRer. Taken together, the results indicate that the necroptosis of granulosa cells is triggered by up- and downregulating the reticulophagy receptor CCPG1 through STAT1/STAT3-(p)RIPK1-(p)RIPK3-(p)MLKL and that reticulophagy is activated by ER stress through the ATF4-MAP1LC3A-CCPG1 pathway